Between two stools, a tale of the Diaspora

There was holy war in the Day Centre. The London Borough I worked in had decided to survey  every Centre to discover the ethnic origin of those in receipt of services. The social workers were charged with helping our elderly clients to fill out a lengthy form. One of the questions read "How do you identify yourself? Irish, Second Generation Irish, Third Generation Irish, Afro-Carribean, (that's what it said!) White, Black, English, Other." The Borough was concerned that people might mis-identify themselves. They were right. We had Irish born people identifying themselves as English, Black people identifying them selves as White and vice versa. What people didn't know was that we, the social workers, were supposed to fill out a separate form and 'correct' any inaccuracies we found. We were a Union House so the Union got involved on the civil liberties issue and the terms of our employment which did not include becoming census enumerators.
The form caused untold distress to our clients. Two thirds of them were Irish born but had lived in London all their adult lives. They were regarded and treated as Irish throughout their working lives in London. But when they went home to Ireland they were regarded and treated as English. Many of their children were embarrassed about having Irish parents. Most of their children identified themselves as English and had assimilated completely. As one older lady said to me with great sadness 'All of us here fall between two stools, pet, we are neither Irish nor English now. Nobody wants us.'

This blog was inspired by Mairead Geary , The Irish American Mom. Read more  Tales of the Diaspora